History Sets Greyhounds A Breed Apart

Their roots go back to the sands of Egypt, a completely different landscape than the summer greenery and winter snow of Wisconsin where their migration took them two years ago.

The dogs running at Kenosha`s Dairyland Greyhound Park and Delavan`s Geneva Lakes Kennel Club are the product of an evolutionary process that began in a countryside of scant vegetation. The breed survived because of fleetness of foot that enabled the animal to hunt and escape its enemies.

The people who populated the desert inbred generation after generation of dogs with no outcrosses to other breeds.

This isolated evolutionary process produced a distinct dog with a slender body, long legs and a narrow muzzle. Unlike other breeds of canines the greyhound came to rely on its superlative vision rather than its sense of smell. The greyhound pursues its quarry not by scent but by sight.

For the last 7,000 years the main features of this breed of natural athlete have remained virtually unchanged. The greyhound can see up to a half- mile and travel approximately 45 miles an hour at top speed with an average stride of between 16 and 19 feet.

Function followed form. In the middle of the 2nd Century A.D. the Greek historian and philosopher Arrian wrote an extensive treatise on the sport of coursing-pursuit of the hare by the greyhound. He concluded that the object was not the catching of the rabbit but the race. The means to the end had become the end itself.

By the Middle Ages the English royalty and nobility were patronizing coursing and maintaining large kennels of greyhounds. Queen Elizabeth I enjoyed coursing so much that she ordered the formulation of the first rules. Eventually, humane concerns for the rabbit led to the decline in the popularity of the sport of coursing and subsequently its prohibition in America.

The ban proved to be the mother of invention. After years of trial and error a man named O.P. Smith patented a mechanical hare that ran around an oval track and in 1919 a race was held in Emeryville, Calif.

Success came with greyhound swiftness. Betting on greyhound racing began in Florida in 1922 and the sport flourished, particularly after the adoption of the pari-mutuel form of wagering in 1932.

Today there are 59 tracks licensed to operate in 18 states.

But when dog racing went from a seasonal pursuit to a sport for all seasons in Northern states developing a user-friendly racing surface became a problem.

``You have to have a surface that will continue to maintain its balance whether it be below freezing or 90 degrees,`` explained Dairyland`s president, Arden Hartman, who helped pioneer winter racing in Colorado in the early 1970s.

In late June, the original Dairyland racing surface laid down when the track opened in 1990 had deteriorated to the extent that the Wisconsin Racing Board mandated that it be replaced. Three days later the dogs had a new track. Hartman wasn`t working at Dairyland when the original strip was set down. ``It was satisfactory but weather and maintenance procedures just caused it to deteriorate,`` he said. ``What we have now is a sand track that contains little clay. We`re maintaining it with a lot of water, which makes it comparable to running on the firm surface of a beach near the water.``